Neighbors
by BigG1999
Summary: Callie moves into a new city with new people, leaving behind her old life.
1. Day one

Seattle was colder than Callie had expected.

It was summer and the sun was only just now rearing its head from a peak in two think clouds, leaving an ungenerous beam of light on the contours of the rusty balcony railing, which in turn lit a dull glow bronze color that matched the tiny flecks in her eyes.

She tucked a strand of raven black hair that was slightly longer than that which framed her face behind her ear, absently squinting to see past the sunlight.

The city wasn't quite awake yet, as apparently eleven am was too early for the excitement that she had been told took place in this particular part. The view she had from the balcony was of another apartment block and the streets below, which was a lot of pavement and not enough shops for the space, leaving large gaps between that Callie thought people might use as makeshift alley ways.

She rubbed at her arms distantly, though she wasn't really cold yet. Behind her was the sound of her best friend, still scoping out every possible inch of the apartment to make sure is was competent. She hummed a little every now and then, apparently satisfied.

Callie gradually let her train of thoughts slip away to something less practiced, relaxing her stance to lean against the railing, her dark eyes lazily scanning the streets below and the apartment block in front of her.

Most of the blinds were drawn, Callie liked to think it was because the people inside were still recovering from a previous night of brash adventures; something they would tell stories of years from now. That's why she moved here, because _she _wanted stories, and _she_ wanted a scrapbook full of pictures taken in the dead of the night and the earliest peaks of the morning. _  
_

Seattle seemed as good a place as any to have adventures, and even more so due to the fact this is where Addison had spend the best three years of her life before she moved back home. To be honest this was a spur of the moment decision; she had woken up at five in the morning and called Addison only to say.

"I am going to move to Seattle in three days."

And against all odd, Addison and Callie had gotten it done.

The only downside was saying goodbye, she guessed.

Her gaze brushed across more and more closed curtains of mysterious people. The curtains were all typical shades of blue, but at least they varied, and Callie was so caught up in the act of distinguishing the differences between the particular shades of blue she almost didn't notice that one window was open.

The window was open and the view inside was a fraction of a living room, a floral patterned chair and a blue rug and a record player on a set of drawers, a record actually sitting in it. Callie moved her eyes from the open window to the balcony beside it.

Her gaze crashed with a pair of bright blue eyes.

At least, they were blue from where she was standing. Maybe they were actually a sort of aquamarine, or a turquoise like the too-bid shirt she was wearing. Blue eyes met brown and Callie was taken, both forgetting how to breathe and forgetting not to breathe too much at once. Blonde hair met shoulders, a pair of sun-kissed legs went on forever, completely still and in such contrast against the chipped white of the railing they stood behind.

Callie was holding a mug in one hand, the other stilled motionless at her side, fingers twitching occasionally, and she was close but way too far away, and Callie didn't remember how to speak.

It became apparent that she was staring, like a prepubescent boy who realized for the first time that mom wasn't the only one who had boobs, and the situation was funny to her, so she cracked a smile, but it was more of a smirk, tugging at the left corner. She lifted her hand in greeting, and the girl on the balcony across from hers did the same, and she was too far away again.

_"Well!"_

Callie spun around on her heel, socked foot easing the process, to face Addison, who had her hands on her hips and stood in the doorway. Her dark brown hair feel in curls to a point not quite past her shoulders but definitely past her neck, eyes of a mysterious nature, sometimes light green and sometimes light blue, that were ablaze in the almost-afternoon sunlight.

"I totally approve. This place is great, I'm actually jealous, my apartment wasn't this nice."

Callie smiled and moved in to hug the older women. Sometimes it felt like they were decades apart and sometimes it felt like no time at all, and now was a moment of the latter as the two embraced. Addison smelled like strawberries.

"I'm really going to miss you," Callie whispers, voice lost in the thickness of Addison's coat.

"You'll do fine," Addison laughed, but there was hitch in her tone that told Callie she might be crying.

When she finally pulled away, she was indeed crying, and then so was Callie, and they were hugging again and Callie was convincing Addison to stay for lunch.

Addison accepted and disappeared back inside, and Callie turned again to see if her neighbor was watching. She wasn't there anymore, and the doors to the balcony were shut. The window was still open but she wasn't there.

Callie went inside.


	2. Day two

It was two in the afternoon when Addison left, and Callie busied herself with unpacking, not wanting to stop and be left alone, because then she was sure she'd get homesick and she really couldn't trust herself not to just call home and say this was all a mistake, which is wasn't.

Her record player sat nicely beside the TV, long past its days of collection dust in her grandmother's living room as it now sat in hers. She'd always loved the things, even though everybody else thought it was a tad unnecessary. The fact that they were still making vinyl records must have said something, though, because the damned thing was gorgeous and there was just something so satisfying about the scratch of needle on record when a song finished.

She ate ramen noodles under lamplight and fiddled with her 3G USB until she has internet, and spent her evening as such; not even remembering to go outside and check for nightlife before she had fallen asleep on the sofa with her laptop clutched to her chest and a satisfied feeling about her gut.

It was warmer the next day, but still a little chilly, so she opted for a short-sleeved shirt but long pants, tying her hair back in to a ponytail so that is didn't get in her face while she went back about her business of unpacking, sorting clothes in to drawers and closets and lining her perfume bottles up along her dresser. It wasn't until that afternoon that she remembered her very pretty neighbor, because, though her open window, she heard the familiar satisfying scratch of a record player's needle jumping to life and then her favorite song started.

She'd loved _beautiful,_ by Meshell Ndegeocello, ever since hearing it for the first time, and owned it. For the briefest of moments she worried that the apartment was haunted and some spirits were messing with her music, but then she turned around and found that it was coming from out the window.

She lent her head out, breeze instantly blowing her hair out of place. The music became louder once her head was out the window, and then she saw her, the neighbor again, this time seated on the ledge of her open window, a huge book in lap as she nodded her head along to the song.

She didn't look up and meet Callie's eye until the song had reached its chorus, and when she did her eyes were wide and not really surprised but not neutral either, but there was _something_ there. Callie smirked like she had yesterday, and then an idea struck, and she held up a finger that meant wait.

After a few moment of fiddling around she managed to get her copy of the song to the same point as her neighbor's, and returned to the window, with a real smile now. The girls whole dace lit up, excitement setting blue fire ablaze, and her lips looked very pink and very soft. Callie considered simply shouting out 'I love you', but the whole idea of that seemed a little rash and unthoughtful, so she settled for climbing through her window to sit on the ledge like the girl was doing. Neither talking as they stared respectively until the song was finished. Both records scratched and a silence fell, and they stared for a few moments longer before the blonde girl stood, waved a hand goodbye and disappeared in to the apartment.

Callie was almost certain that she was in love.


	3. Day three

Callie left the house at seven and managed to get a job by ten, as a Orthopedic surgeon in the hospital just five minutes away from where she lived. In the hospital they had a gift shop with all sorts of cool little knick-knacks, so Callie ended up with a black leather jacket and a pearl necklace.

Money wouldn't be an issue, even if the clothes weren't inexpensive and she didn't have a job, because she had publishing book since she was sixteen and it was only that she needed something to keep her alive and not crammed in the apartment that made her go to med school and become a very successful surgeon. It also gave her incite on different types of people, making it easier to write about different people.

She also picked up a bottle of red wine and some sparklers, and by the time she got home it was already dinner time.

She had a candlelit dinner with herself and then decided to get ready for her one-person party, which to anyone else might have been sad, but not Callie. She had been keeping to herself since the age of five, that is when she learned how to write, she would much rather be with people she made up than with real people. Tonight though, she thought she might like to observe the night life and maybe the pretty girl next door.

She put her favorite record on, which went for about an hour with slow music, and put her hair up.

She wore Chanel perfume and red lipstick and her brand new coat and pearls, and took her wine and sparklers out on to the balcony, where the sun was already long since set below the horizon. The streets were coming to life already, so Callie lit the first sparkler and began to drink, watching and dancing and spinning every now and then, drunk before she'd even started to drink.

She wondered were the people were going and what they were laughing about, how they's discovered that song they were listening to and what their plans were for the next morning. She wondered who was drunk and who was heart broken, and how they's come to be that way, and she wondered of anyone down there had a pretty girl next door that they were waiting for.

She came out like she'd known that Callie was waiting for her, hair almost silver in the moon and street lights and pooling over her shoulders as she lent far over the ledge to look at the people blow. When she pulled back, her eyes met with Callie's, and they were almost smoky in the lighting, but maybe that was the distance, which wasn't actually much. Callie had been prepared tonight, and almost immediately started scribbling down on the notepad she'd brought out with her.

_What's your name?_

She folder it in to a paper airplane and it went soaring across the few yards between them, landing in the girl's ready hands. She opened it, blue eyes scanning the words fervently even though there were only three of them. She held up a finger that meant wait, and disappeared inside her apartment, returning a minutes later with a paper airplane and a notepad. She threw hers over and it landed on the table beside the bottle of wine. Callie opened it.

_Arizona Robbins_

Arizona was a unusual name, she decided, but even so began writing a note back.

_Calliope (Callie) Torres_

They continued this way for a while, not minding that the progress was slow since it was so fun, and occasionally a plane wouldn't make it across and would fall blow to the streets somewhere, and Callie wondered if anyone was picking them up and reading them, wondering about the two girls in their opposite apartments falling in love slowly over notes.

Callie learnt that she was the same age as her, and she is also an artist in her spare time. She liked music a lot and thought pants were overrated. She had a birthmark just above her hip almost in the shape of a heart. She thought Callie was hot.

They flirted for a while, until the record that Callie had playing began playing the last song, her favorite, her next note read.

_Dance with me, Arizona Robbins_

Arizona Robbins danced with her.

Callie opened her arms and began spinning, and the air was both cool and warm on the exposed parts of her skin, smile refusing to dissipate due to the fact that Arizona was dancing too.

She didn't stop dancing until the song was finished and the record scratched and went silent, the only sounds being the bustle below ant the gentle night air again as the two girls stopped dancing and stared.

It wasn't the awkward kind of staring, just a level one. They didn't check each other out, but they did both seem to be doing their respective jobs of searching in the other's eyes for the answer to some forgotten question. Arizona's cheeks were pink and her hair was messy. Her lashed were dark and her dress was a darker shade of blue and ended before her knees. She finally sent an airplane over.

_Goodnight, Calliope_

When Callie looked back over to her, she has already gone inside and the window had been shut already.


	4. Day four

Callie woke up at eight o'three exactly and had breakfast with Arizona Robbins on her windowsill.

Arizona was eating some vaguely sugary looking cereal and Callie was seating french toast. They had both caught each other's eye through the window upon Callie's entering her living room. Arizona had been wearing a grey shirt that was too big for her and fell over one shoulder, exposing her collar bones. She woes tube socks and one of them was longer than the other. Callie sent over a plane immediately requesting that they have breakfast together.

After eating, Arizona sent a plane over, eyes giving away n hint of what may be inside. It caught in the breeze and fell to the streets below before it could reach Callie, and she made a show of being disappointed. Instead of writing another one, Arizona simply smiled and shrugged her shoulders, and hen disappeared inside without returning again.

Callie made a quick decision to throw in some shoes and hurry down to the streets below, which were a whole six floors. The plane was caught against the corner of a storm drain in front of a bar with very few customers. Callie took it back up to her apartment before she read it.

_You're beautiful when you dance_

Callie searched, but there was no sigh of life in the apartment across from her, so she assumed Arizona had left for the day. She groaned a pretty impressive endless note for about a minute and a half before she got dressed for work.

There was still no sign of Arizona after she got home from two six hour surgeries.


	5. Day five

Callie had the day off the next day, so she stayed home to work on her latest book, which was a prequel in a series about a young girl who ran away from home to become an artist. Nine hundred pages and three books later and she still hadn't come home yet, but she did have some pretty exciting stories.

The first two books were best sellers.

The day was pretty lazy and unproductive, so she got dressed up that night and took the rest of her wine to the balcony. There was a paper plane sitting on the floor with a lightweight rose taped to the front.

_Calliope Torres, I request your company again, and I request that one surly considers dancing with me._

Arizona was already there when Callie looked up. A smile spread across her face very slowly. Her jacket was longer than her skirt and her hair was behind her shoulders.

She sent one back,

_One happily obliges, Miss Robbins. I look forward to hearing your choice in music._

Her choice in music happened to be one Callie was quite fond of, but couldn't for the life of her remember. Instead of spinning like they had the other night they kind of swayed for a bit, still exchanging notes. Callie drank out of a glass instead of the bottle.

Callie sent,

_You are magnificent and strange and beautiful. And I like your hair._

Arizona smiled and wrote right back,

_I want to kiss you very badly, Miss Torres. And, I like your hair._

They stopped sending planes after that, just listened to the music and watched each other, smiling. Callie noted that Arizona had a smile that brightens the whole room and very cute dimples. The record finally ended and Arizona stood up and waved goodnight. Callie waved back but she was looking at Arizona's lips. Even still when they weren't there because Arizona had gone back inside. And then, finally, she was watching Arizona through her window, which was closed but the blinds were open. She took the record and put it back in its case, and then shook her hair out tiredly, hands on hips ans she sighed and stood for a moment, eyes closed. The moonlight beat down on her face, lighting it pale in a slash-like manor from her eye to her lip on one side of her face. She finally opened them and caught Callie's eye through the window.

Callie went to bed.


	6. Day six

There was no sign of Arizona the next day, but Callie watched anyway. Her blinds were still open and there was a book on the back of the floral print chair. Callie squinted and figures out it was a medical book, **Grey's Anatomy**. The record player was bare. Arizona didn't look to be home.

Callie went to work and thought about Arizona a lot instead of teaching her interns, which got her sent home to 'clear her head' Callie said that she was fine, but Chief Webber sent her home anyways.

She let her hair down and shook it out and put a record on. Then she went to check if Arizona was home yet. She wasn't, but there was a paper plane.

_I really do like your hair, Calliope Torres._

Callie was only in her apartment for an additional five minutes from finding to note when there was a knock at her door. She wondered if it was a surprise visit from Addison, or maybe that somebody got her mail by accident and would invite themselves inside to share exciting stories.

**Callie opened the door and stopped breathing.**

Her skin wasn't porcelain, it had faint lines of impurities from where she'd been smiling too much. Her skin tone was still beautiful, but it didn't glow. She had faint bags under her eyes, barely there. Her lips were smooth and pink and her hair was messy. She was shorter that Callie and her eyes were wide.

They were, in fact, a most beautiful shade of blue.

She said, "Calliope Torres."

And Callie said, "I like your hair."

Arizona took one last step from the hallway and in to Callie's apartment. Callie's hands wrapped around the shorter blonde and Arizona's in Callie's dark hair.

The door was still open when their lips meet. Kissing Callie decided something.

Callie was definitely in love.

**The End.**


End file.
